The Registered Designs Rules 1995

HOURS OF BUSINESS AND EXCLUDED DAYS

Hours of business

74.  The Patent Office shall be deemed to be closed at the following hours for the transaction of business of the classes specified—

(a) on weekdays, other than Saturdays, at midnight for the filing of applications, forms and other documents, and at four p.m. for all other business,

(b) on Saturdays, at one p.m. for the filing of new applications for the registration of designs which are not convention applications.

Excluded days

75.—(1) The following shall be excluded days for all purposes under the Act:

(a) all Sundays;

(b) Good Friday and Christmas Day;

(c) any day specified as or proclaimed to be a bank holiday in England in or under section 1 of the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(1);

(d) any Saturday immediately preceded by a day falling within sub-paragraph (b) or (c) above.

(2) Saturdays not falling within paragraph (1) above shall be excluded days for all purposes except the filing of new applications for the registration of designs which are not convention applications.

Calculation of times or periods

76.—(1) Where, on any day, there is—

(a) a general interruption or subsequent dislocation in the postal services of the United Kingdom, or

(b) an event or circumstances causing an interruption in the normal operation of the Patent Office,

the registrar may certify the day as being one on which there is an “interruption” and, where any period of time specified in the Act or these Rules for the giving, making or filing of any notice, application or other document expires on a day so certified the period shall be extended to the first day next following (not being an excluded day) which is not so certified.

(2) Any certificate of the registrar given pursuant to this rule shall be posted in the Patent Office.

(3) Where in connection with an application for the registration of a design the period of time referred to in rule 34(1)(b) above or the period of six months after the opening of an exhibition referred to in section 6(2) ends on a day which is certified by the registrar for the purposes of paragaph (1) above or which is an excluded day for the purposes of section 39, the application shall be treated as having been made within the relevant period if it is made on the first following day which is neither so certified nor an excluded day.

(4) If in any particular case the registrar is satisfied that the failure to give, make or file any notice, application or other document within—

(a) any period of time specified in the Act or these Rules for such giving, making or filing,

(b) the period of six months specified in section 6(2) or 14(1), or

(c) the period of time referred to in rule 34(1)(b) above,

was wholly or mainly attributable to a failure or undue delay in the postal services in the United Kingdom, the registrar may, if he thinks fit—

(i) in the case of a period of time falling within sub-paragraph (a) above, extend the period so that it ends on the day of the receipt by the addressee of the notice, application or other document (or, if the day of such receipt is an excluded day, on the first following day which is not an excluded day), or

(ii) in the case of the said periods of six months or the period of time referred to in rule 34(1)(b) above, determine that the application shall be treated as having been made within the relevant period,

in each case upon such notice to other parties and upon such terms as he may direct.

(1)

1971 c. 80.